Browsing School of Management Studies by Issue Date

The concept of social clause has
been accepted in the GATT
agreement to prescribe the
labour standards. Social clause
, $tands for protecting labour
standards, more specificalfy
prohibition of employment of
children in hazardous industries,
providing adequate wages.
healthy and hygienic working
conditions, special social welfare
protection for women,
prescription of hours of work and
rest and provision for efficacious
remedy in case of default by
employer to provide these
conditions to his workers.

To provide maintenance engineering community with a model named “Maintenance
quality function deployment” (MQFD) for nourishing the synergy of quality function deployment
(QFD) and total productive maintenance (TPM) and enhancing maintenance quality of products and
equipment.The principles of QFD and TPM were studied. MQFD model
was designed by coupling these two principles. The practical implementation feasibility of MQFD
model was checked in an automobile service station.Both QFD and TPM are popular approaches and several benefits of implementing them
have been reported worldwide. Yet the world has not nourished the synergic power of integrating
them. The MQFD implementation study reported in this paper has revealed its practical validity

The paper ‘Impact of Quality on Ethics and Social Responsibility in Marketing in Industries in
Kerala in the present Indian scenario’ highlights the observations, based on a descriptive research
carried out in five leading industries in Kerala, in the private and public sector. Ethics and social
responsibilities, practiced in these industries, are reflected in the results of the survey conducted
on specific queries like awareness of products/services provided by them, total understanding of
the requirements of the customer, open discussion on technical matters, accountability of
employees to the society and social needs, consumer ethics vis a vis business ethics etc. Team
working goes a long way, in building relations, which in turn, results in a progressive and
effective marketing strategy. This assumes paramount importance, considering the severe
competition we are facing in the light of liberalization, privatization and globalization, which
encompasses the globe. The prediction of India becoming a lead nation, along with USA, China
and Japan, in this decade, can get fructified only if we follow a very high standards of ethics and
social responsibility, in all domains including marketing.
Organizations like TRW.Rane, Sundaram Fasteners, TVS Motors, in Chennai are a few among
others in India, who have achieved the highest distinction in quality viz Deming Prize, and these
demonstrate their commitment to quality, society and humanity at large. Cost effectiveness,
without jeopardizing quality has become the need of the hour and MRTP has become history.
This trait is being brought out through the survey and the results speak for themselves. Unethical
practices like switch and bait, not only brings shame to the organization, and country but also
results in the company getting wiped out from the market. Adherence to standards like ISO 14000
helps to maintain the minimum level of social responsibility and environmental friendliness. Like
quality audit, safety audit etc, social audit is being insisted in all progressive countries to ensure
that the organization comply with the minimum statutory requirements.
The paper also touches upon Corporate Social Responsibility practiced in the industries and this
becomes crystal clear through their commitment to improve the community. Green Marketing
lays a lot of importance on the three Rs of environmentalism viz Reduce, Reuse and Recycle. The
objective of any business is to achieve optimal profit and this is possible only by reducing the
cost as well as waste. In this context, management tools like brainstorming, suggestion schemes,
benchmarking etc becomes helpful. These characteristics are brought out through the analysis of
survey results. The conclusions drawn throw a lot of information on the desirable practices with
respect to Ethics and Social Responsibility in Marketing

IT and related services played a major role for India’s current 9.2. GDP growth. Organized
retailing in India is one more example for its open economy. The IT industries where able
develop a demand for Indian talents all over the world and improved their living standards. It
directly impacts only a small minority of Indian population while organized retail affects every
single Indian and every sector of Indian society. The paper gives a glimpse of the slow evolution
of retail market over the years in India and its contribution for economic growth. The likely
positive impact of this revolution in different sectors is enumerated. Paper addresses its ability to
manipulate consumption pattern of society, increased customer satisfaction and likely change in
the market shares of the different types of sellers. Paper discusses its flip sides like increasing
social tension among families below poverty line and greater loss of self employment
opportunities by this revolution. The main theme of enquiry of this paper is what it all means for
the Indian society.

Tourism being a smokeless industry is now a multi-billion, multi-sectoral and multi-dimensional activity in
the world. Twenty first century tourism has reached up to space when a Russian rocket carried the space
vehicle of Dennis Tito, an American businessman and the world’s first space tourist, to the space station.
Time is not too far to carry tourists to moon and other planets in specially launched vehicles.
Tourism is being considered as an agent of social change bridging gaps among nations, regions and people
and helping them to open up. It is a promoter of development-material and spiritual both at macro and
micro level. The General Assembly of the United Nations, in designating the year 1967 as ‘International
Tourism Year’ recognized the importance of international travel as a means of fostering understanding
among people, and giving them a knowledge of the rich heritage of the past civilizations, a better
appreciation of the values of different cultures, thus contributing to the strengthening of world peace. It
adopted the theme “Tourism-Passport to peace”. Our veteran national leader and the first Prime Minister
of India, Jawaharlal Nehru had said” welcome a tourist and send back a friend” which indicates the need
for extending friendly hospitality to the in bound tourists.
Modern transportation has removed the obstacles of distance enabling people to appreciate each other
engage in the exchange of ideas and commerce. Tourism can help overcome real prejudices and foster
bonds. Tourism can be a real force of world peace.
Considering the vast and varied potential of tourism in the state and its impact on the economic, social and
cultural environment of the state, a detailed study is found to be relevant and imperative

Reinforcement Learning (RL) refers to a class of
learning algorithms in which learning system learns which
action to take in different situations by using a scalar
evaluation received from the environment on performing
an action. RL has been successfully applied to many multi
stage decision making problem (MDP) where in each stage
the learning systems decides which action has to be taken.
Economic Dispatch (ED) problem is an important
scheduling problem in power systems, which decides the
amount of generation to be allocated to each generating
unit so that the total cost of generation is minimized
without violating system constraints. In this paper we
formulate economic dispatch problem as a multi stage
decision making problem. In this paper, we also develop
RL based algorithm to solve the ED problem. The
performance of our algorithm is compared with other
recent methods. The main advantage of our method is it
can learn the schedule for all possible demands
simultaneously.

This paper presents a Reinforcement Learning (RL)
approach to economic dispatch (ED) using Radial Basis Function
neural network. We formulate the ED as an N stage decision
making problem. We propose a novel architecture to store Qvalues
and present a learning algorithm to learn the weights of
the neural network. Even though many stochastic search
techniques like simulated annealing, genetic algorithm and
evolutionary programming have been applied to ED, they
require searching for the optimal solution for each load demand.
Also they find limitation in handling stochastic cost functions. In
our approach once we learn the Q-values, we can find the
dispatch for any load demand. We have recently proposed a RL
approach to ED. In that approach, we could find only the
optimum dispatch for a set of specified discrete values of power
demand. The performance of the proposed algorithm is validated
by taking IEEE 6 bus system, considering transmission losses

Description:

Fifteenth National Power Systems Conference (NPSC), IIT Bombay, December 2008

This paper presents the design and analysis of a
400-step hybrid stepper motor for spacecraft applications. The
design of the hybrid stepper motor for achieving a specific
performance requires the choice of appropriate tooth geometry.
In this paper, a detailed account of the results of two-dimensional
finite-element (FE) analysis conducted with different tooth
shapes such as square and trapezoidal, is presented. The use of
% more
corresponding increase in detent torque and distorted static
torque profile. For the requirements of maximum torque density,
less-detent torque, and better positional accuracy and smooth
static torque profile, different pitch slotting with equal tooth
width has to be provided. From the various FE models subjected
to analysis trapezoidal teeth configuration with unequal tooth
pitch on the stator and rotor is found to be the best configuration
and is selected for fabrication. The designed motor is fabricated
and the experimental results is compared with the FE results

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Ethnic/Minority entrepreneur is a business owner who does not represent the
majority population of a country. Ethnic/Minority entrepreneurship can bring benefits
to individual, society, region, economy, and globe too. So, understanding the importance
of ethnic/minority entrepreneurship will really be useful to all the stakeholders. The
unique culture and value system of ethnic minorities are the most wanted characteristics
for any successful entrepreneur in general. Many industrial nations like U.S, U.K.,
Germany, etc. have utilised the ethnic minorities to build their economy. The future
of the minority businesses looks bright as the world economy is booming, availability
of experienced and already successful minority entrepreneurs as role models, and
institutional support services. In this paper, literature relating to the benefits of ethnic
and minority entrepreneurship is reviewed to understand its magnitude of benefits.

The towed array electronics is essentially a multichannel real time data
acquisition system. The major challenges involved in it are the simultaneous
acquisition of data from multiple channels, telemetry of the data over tow cable
(several kilometres in some systems) and synchronization with the onboard receiver
for accurate reconstruction. A serial protocol is best suited to transmit the data to
onboard electronics since number of wires inside the tow cable is limited. The best
transmission medium for data over large distances is the optical fibre. In this a two
step approach towards the realization of a reliable telemetry scheme for the sensor
data using standard protocols is described. The two schemes are discussed in this
paper. The first scheme is for conversion of parallel, time-multiplexed multi-sensor
data to Ethernet. Existing towed arrays can be upgraded to ethernet using this
scheme. Here the last lap of the transmission is by Ethernet over Fibre. For the next
generation of towed arrays it is required to digitize and convert the data to ethernet
close to the sensor. This is the second scheme. At the heart of this design is the
Analog-to-Ethernet node. In addition to a more reliable interface, this helps in easier
fault detection and firmware updates in the field for the towed arrays. The design
challenges and considerations for incorporating a network of embedded devices
within the array are highlighted

Unit commitment is an optimization task in electric
power generation control sector. It involves scheduling the
ON/OFF status of the generating units to meet the load demand
with minimum generation cost satisfying the different constraints
existing in the system. Numerical solutions developed are limited
for small systems and heuristic methodologies find difficulty in
handling stochastic cost functions associated with practical
systems. This paper models Unit Commitment as a multi stage
decision task and Reinforcement Learning solution is formulated
through one efficient exploration strategy: Pursuit method. The
correctness and efficiency of the developed solutions are verified
for standard test systems

Unit Commitment Problem (UCP) in power
system refers to the problem of determining the on/ off
status of generating units that minimize the operating cost
during a given time horizon. Since various system and
generation constraints are to be satisfied while finding the
optimum schedule, UCP turns to be a constrained
optimization problem in power system scheduling.
Numerical solutions developed are limited for small systems
and heuristic methodologies find difficulty in handling
stochastic cost functions associated with practical systems.
This paper models Unit Commitment as a multi stage
decision making task and an efficient Reinforcement
Learning solution is formulated considering minimum up
time /down time constraints. The correctness and efficiency
of the developed solutions are verified for standard test
systems

Description:

International J. of Recent Trends in Engineering and Technology, Vol. 3, No. 3, May 2010

This paper presents the design and analysis of a novel
machine family of Siotiess Permanent Magnet Brushless DC
motors (PMBLDC) for precise positioning applications of
spacecrafts. Initial design, selection of major parameters and air
gap magnetic flux density are estimated using the analytical
model of the machine. The proportion of the halbach array in the
machine was optimized using FE to obtain near trapezoidal flux
pattern. The novel machine topology is found to deliver high
torque density, high efficiency, zero cogging torque, better
positional stability, high torque to inertia ratio and zero magnetic
stiction suiting space requirements. The machine provides
uniform air gap flux density along the radius thus avoiding
circulating currents in stator conductors and hence reducing
torque ripple

Description:

Communication Control and Computing Technologies (ICCCCT), 2010 IEEE International Conference on

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Tourism is an industry which is heavily dependent on marketing. Mouth to mouth communication has played a major role in shaping a number of destinations.This is particularly true in modern parlance.This is social networking phenomenon which is fast spreading over the internet .Many sites provide visitors a lot of freedom to express their views.Promotion of a destination depends lot on conversation and exchange of information over these social networks.This paper analyses the social networking sites their contribution to marketing tourism and hoapitality .The negetive impacts phenomena are also discussed

This paper presents Reinforcement Learning (RL) approaches to Economic Dispatch problem. In this
paper, formulation of Economic Dispatch as a multi stage decision making problem is carried out, then
two variants of RL algorithms are presented. A third algorithm which takes into consideration the transmission
losses is also explained. Efficiency and flexibility of the proposed algorithms are demonstrated
through different representative systems: a three generator system with given generation cost table, IEEE
30 bus system with quadratic cost functions, 10 generator system having piecewise quadratic cost functions
and a 20 generator system considering transmission losses. A comparison of the computation times
of different algorithms is also carried out.

Modeling nonlinear systems using Volterra series is
a century old method but practical realizations were hampered by
inadequate hardware to handle the increased computational complexity
stemming from its use. But interest is renewed recently,
in designing and implementing filters which can model much
of the polynomial nonlinearities inherent in practical systems.
The key advantage in resorting to Volterra power series for this
purpose is that nonlinear filters so designed can be made to
work in parallel with the existing LTI systems, yielding improved
performance. This paper describes the inclusion of a quadratic
predictor (with nonlinearity order 2) with a linear predictor
in an analog source coding system. Analog coding schemes
generally ignore the source generation mechanisms but focuses
on high fidelity reconstruction at the receiver. The widely used
method of differential pnlse code modulation (DPCM) for speech
transmission uses a linear predictor to estimate the next possible
value of the input speech signal. But this linear system do not
account for the inherent nonlinearities in speech signals arising
out of multiple reflections in the vocal tract. So a quadratic
predictor is designed and implemented in parallel with the linear
predictor to yield improved mean square error performance. The
augmented speech coder is tested on speech signals transmitted
over an additive white gaussian noise (AWGN) channel.

Description:

Communications and Signal Processing (ICCSP), 2011 International Conference on

This paper presents the optimal design of a surface
mounted permanent-magnet (PM) Brushless direct-current
(BLDC) motor meant for spacecraft applications. The spacecraft
applications requires the choice of a motor with high torque
density, minimum cogging torque, better positional stability and
high torque to inertia ratio. Performance of two types of machine
configurations viz Slotted PMBLDC and Slotless PMBLDC with
Halbach array are compared with the help of analytical and
finite element (FE) methods. It is found that unlike a Slotted
PMBLDC motor, the Slotless type with Halbach array develops
zero cogging torque without reduction in the developed torque.
Moreover, the machine being coreless provides high torque to
inertia ratio and zero magnetic stiction

Description:

Emerging Trends in Electrical and Computer Technology (ICETECT), 2011 International Conference on

Automobile Industry in India is influenced by the presence of national and multi-national
manufacturers. The presence of many manufacturers and brands in the state provides many
choices to the customer. The current market for car manufacturers has been transformed from a
monopoly of one or two manufacturers in the seventies to oligopoly of many manufacturers in
the current marketing scenario. The main objective of the research paper is to explore and
conceptualize various parameters and develop a model, which influence the purchase patterns of
passenger cars in the State of Kerala. Thus, the main purpose of this paper is to come up with a
model, which shall facilitate further study on the consumer purchase behaviour patterns of
passenger car owners in the State of Kerala, India. The author intends to undertake further
quantitative analysis to verify and validate the model so developed. The main methods used for
this paper are secondary research on available material, depth interview of car dealers, car
financing agencies and car owners in the city of Cochin, in Kerala State in India.
The depth interviews were conducted with the use of prepared questionnaire for car dealers, car
customers and car financing agencies. The findings resulted in the identification of the
parameters that influence the consumer purchase behaviour of passenger cars and the
formulation of the model, which will be the basis for the further research of the author. The
paper will be of tremendous value to the existing and new car manufacturers both indigenous
and foreign, to formalize and strategies their policies towards an effective marketing strategy, so
as to market their models in the State, which is known for its high literacy, consumerism and
higher educational penetration

This paper presents the optimal design of a sur-
face mounted permanent magnet Brushless DC mo-
tor (PMBLDC) meant for spacecraft applications.
The spacecraft applications requires the choice of a
torques motor with high torque density, minimum
cogging torque, better positional stability and high
torque to inertia ratio. Performance of two types
of machine con¯gurations viz Slotted PMBLDC and
Slotless PMBLDC with halbach array are compared
with the help of analytical and FE methods. It is
found that unlike a Slotted PMBLDC motor, the
Slotless type with halbach array develops zero cogging
torque without reduction in the developed torque.
Moreover, the machine being coreless provides high
torque to inertia ratio and zero magnetic stiction

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The greatest damage inflicted by the recent recession has not necessarily been financial but emotional and psychological. There are a lot of direct and indirect societal challenges ,changes and oppurtunuties that were brought by recession everywhere including in India. In this paper an attempt is made to analyse such societal changes challenges and oppurtunities.